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Game of Thrones is my favourite program ever ever EVER. Honestly, I could spend hours on tumblr looking at quotes and pictures, I've watched every related Youtube video and I am literally counting down the days until season 5 starts. 26 DAYS PEOPLE.

Anyway... I decided to make something to keep me occupied in the mean time. I decided to make a polymer clay dragon eggs keyring. Honestly, I thought this was going to be dead easy, I thought of a few ways I could do it and thought it would look great. 3 attempts later...yeah it hadn't really gone to plan. So in the end, I went for a simple technique which was annoyingly time consuming. If your going to have a go with this one, make sure you pencil in a good few hours for the making! Still, I think they look pretty cool so I'm glad I persevered!

Step 1- Make Eggs From Scrap Clay

The easy bit- make three small egg shapes from scrap clay. These won't be seen so don't waste nice clay for this. Insert an eye pin at this point, don't push in all the way so there is a little bit of space left. Then bake!

Step 2- Add Scales

This is where it gets a bit fiddly. I cut lots of tiny squares and began layering them onto the egg. Start from the bottom and then go round in a circular motion. I think it works most effectively when you layer them slightly over the previous row, the picture above was my first attempt, which is why it doesn't look as good. You live and you learn!

Step 3- Texture and Add Shading

Texture the bottom of the egg with either a needle tool, tin foil or something that will make a textured pattern. I also added a variation of tones by shading with chalk pastels. A little tip I can give you is to use lighter clay than you want the finished colour to be because then you can shade and use the colour coming through as highlights. Then bake for the final time and it's nearly finished!

Once they were baked, I did a wash of watered down acrylic paint to just add a bit more colour until I was happy that they looked truly ancient and mystical.

Step 4- Add to Keychain

I decided to make mine into a keychain but you could easily make them into any piece of jewellery as well. I had a look on Youtube and found a few other tutorials for different ways of making these if your still struggling, so make sure you check on there. I particularly liked NerdECrafter's, which she made into a bracelet.

So, now I feel ready to take on the 7 kingdoms. Will have to think about what to make next... I saw someone had made a miniature throne out of clay, it looked amazing but I don't think I've quite developed the patience for a project like that yet!

A little while ago, Jason and I went to Shepreth wildlife park. Jason put together a little film of our day and I thought I would share it on here.

Shepreth is a quaint little place outside of Cambridge, the zoo is also conveniently right next to the station. I think at the time we used a 2 for 1 voucher to get in so it was also a relativity cheap day out. It has a surprisingly wide variety of animals for the size of the park. It even has tigers! I'm normally a bit funny about zoos because as much as I love seeing animals, part of me wishes they were in the wild or at least had more space. I am obviously fully supportive of endangered animals being in captivity so they can survive and get the numbers up. It seemed Shepreth were promoting conservation and doing a lot for endangered species, which made me feel so much better. In fact, you can read up on the website about all the good work they are doing which is fab.

The highlights for me were definitely the otters, which were excitable and absolutely crazy! Also, the meerkats never fail to make you giggle and seeing tigers up close was utterly magical.

We will definitely be going again when the weather gets warmer, but for now we can re-live it through the video!

As a side note, I'm hoping to put a lot more work into my Youtube channel and try and publish a new craft video every week. I'm very lucky that Jason is an editing wiz and can help me put content together. So, if that is something you like the sound of, you can subscribe to keep updated with the videos. If I can keep this organised, that's a new blog post and new video every week, how exciting!

Let's start today's post with a little trivia shall we? Did you know, a few years after creating the holiday, the founder of Mother's Day Anna Jarvis tried to have it banned due to it becoming too commercialised?! At the heart of it, Mother's Day represents a beautiful message, say thanks to your mumma for all she's done for you...and for many of us, the things she's had to put up with over the years! But as with all of these holidays, I get why people would have an issue with the way it is exploited by companies. Anything to make you run out in a panic at the last minute to buy a card you haven't even read properly and a gift you've put little thought into. Well I say, let's do Anna proud and put some effort in this year! A handmade gift may take you a little longer but it will be so worth it... and I bet it'll last longer in your mum's house than a crappy card from Tesco!

Here's my little take on a bunch of flowers and personalised vase, only these ones are better as they don't have to be watered and will last longer than a week! :)

DIY Vase

I'm so smitten with this little vase that I think I'm going to make one for my flat too. In fact, there is so much you can do with a recycled beer bottle that I think I'm going to have to do a separate post on it. I actually had so many design ideas that I had to be rational with myself and not go too crazy on this one. I can envision this craft in my Mum's kitchen, so I wanted to keep with the scheme she's got going on. Her kitchen is quite neutral with a hint of pastel blue but is a true countryside kitchen. I used the gingham washi tape as I thought this encapsulates this theme, but I included a bit of sparkliness in the ribbon and stuffing to make it feel a bit special. Easy as that! This is lovely by itself or use it as a candle holder. Gorgeous!

DIY Felt Roses

I'm going to confess, before I used this technique, I had spent hours making another flower which frankly, looked crap. Then I tried this and honestly, within half an hour I had three stunning flowers. Oh well, you live and you learn.

This is super easy, so easy that I feel I might over complicate it when trying to explain! This technique is nothing new, you may know it already!

1. Start by drawing around something round, I used a lid of a jar.
2. Mark the point in the middle with a pen.
3. Cut into the circle, wiggle your scissors as you go to create a wiggly line, keep going round until you get to the dot in the middle.

4. Once you have cut the shape, you should be left with a long piece of wavey felt. Start from the outside edge and simply roll it back together tightly.
5. When it is all wound together, you should have something that resembles a rose! With the last piece of the felt, use your glue gun to secure it to the bottom and your finished!

The flowers themselves are so lovely they could be given just as they are! I took mine a step further and made a stem, which I stuffed slightly with toy filling and wire to give it some strength. I also made some tiny leaves which I glued to the back of the roses. They could be given as they are, with a ribbon around the steam and maybe a little label or card attached. Or you could glue a pin on the back and give them as a broach. So many options!

I will be giving mine to my Mum in the vase as I think they look lovely like that but feel free to experiment!

I'm incredibly lucky to have been surrounded by amazing women all my life, I know that's not the case for everyone. My mum is strong, brave and one of the kindest people to ever walk to planet. My granny was so wonderful and kindhearted, an absolute angel. Mum's really are superhuman. Have a lovely weekend with your loved ones, and much love to your mother's whoever they are or where ever they may be, in this world or the next. Girl power to all.

I've been neglecting my blog recently and I feel pretty crap about it. I want this blog to be my little space on the internet where I can share my love of crafts and the bits and pieces that I've made and feel relatively proud of. The problem is, I haven't really made anything I feel particularly happy with in a while and frankly, I've lost my creative mojo. I go through phases where I just don't feel like I'm on top of things, I'm messy, unorganised and completely uninspired. Life gets in the way. I just feel like I'm in melt down mode at the moment. I'm feeling very reflective and at the same time, panicked about the future. I'm going through one of those 'I don't know what I'm going to do with my life' moments which sadly, seem to linger a little longer these days (getting older never helps). When I feel negative about certain aspects of my life, it has a knock on effect on to everything else...

Please tell me I'm not the only one who gets like this?

So, instead of doing a rubbish post on something I don't even like that much, I thought I'd just be honest. I'm hoping, like me, this is something you guys can relate to feeling now and again. Sorry to sound so negative but I'm just a bit deflated at the moment.

To get myself back in the game, I decided maybe I would give myself some structure and put time aside for making a plan. I'm working on some ideas to get myself feeling creative again. I have no excuses not to get busy this weekend so fingers crossed for a new craft on Wednesday.